The stupidity (or complicity) behind such a move is profound. The immediate question is who was behind the invitation to a Hamas group named an un-indicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorist-funding trial in our nation's history to proselytize to the Arizona State Senate? There. are. no. words.

A Call to Islam in the Arizona Senate Robert Spencer, February 14, 2013, Daily Mailer,FrontPage

Last
week, a representative of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR) gave a prayer before the Arizona State Senate.

No news media picked it up. No one reported on it. It was a
commonplace thing. CAIR, after all, is a “civil rights” organization;
why should anyone be concerned if a CAIR leader prays in a U.S.
government body? CAIR has been linked by the Justice Department to the
Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, but no one seems to mind. What could go
wrong?

And so this is the situation: in America today, representatives of a
group linked to an international organization dedicated to “eliminating
and destroying Western civilization from within” (the Muslim
Brotherhood’s stated goal in the U.S., according to a captured internal
document) are consulted daily by law enforcement officials and the
mainstream media, and one is invited into the august chambers of
government to give his blessings on the proceedings. While there, he
leads the lawmakers in a prayer that obliquely condemns their own
religious traditions.

Meanwhile, those who are trying to defend the nation against their
subversive influence, are demonized, defamed, marginalized and shunned.
Again, what could go wrong?

The website of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Arizona
chapter announced proudly that “on Thursday, February 7th, 2013 – the
Arizona State Senate’s prayer invocation was led by Anas Hlayhel – the
Chairman of the Arizona Chapter of the Council on American Islamic
Relations (CAIR-AZ.)

Hlayhel, who also serves as the part time imam of the Islamic Center
of the Northeast Valley led the lawmakers and all those in attendance
through the reading of al-Fatiha (the opening chapter of the Holy Quran)
in addition to an additional prayer thereafter.”

He “led the lawmakers and all those in attendance through the reading
of al-Fatiha.” So what did they read? The Fatiha, the first sura of the
Qur’an, contains this: “Guide us in the straight path, the path of
those whom Thou hast blessed, not of those against whom Thou art
wrathful, nor of those who are astray.” (1:6-7)

It sounds straightforward enough: guide us to the truth, guide us
onto the path to God, don’t let us get on the wrong paths, that lead us
away from You. A simple expression of piety, that any religious person
could endorse, no? No. The traditional Islamic understanding of this is
that the “straight path” is Islam — cf. Islamic apologist John
Esposito’s book Islam: The Straight Path. It is also
traditionally understood in Islamic explanations of this passage that
the path of those who have earned Allah’s anger are the Jews, and those
who have gone astray are the Christians.

The classic Qur’anic commentator Ibn Kathir explains that “the two
paths He described here are both misguided,” and that those “two paths
are the paths of the Christians and Jews, a fact that the believer
should beware of so that he avoids them. The path of the believers is
knowledge of the truth and abiding by it. In comparison, the Jews
abandoned practicing the religion, while the Christians lost the true
knowledge. This is why ‘anger’ descended upon the Jews, while being
described as ‘led astray’ is more appropriate of the Christians.”

Ibn Kathir’s understanding of this passage is not a lone “extremist”
interpretation. In fact, most Muslim commentators believe that the Jews
are those who have earned Allah’s wrath and the Christians are those who
have gone astray. This is the view of Tabari, Zamakhshari, the Tafsir al-Jalalayn, the Tanwir al-Miqbas min Tafsir Ibn Abbas,
and Ibn Arabi, as well as Ibn Kathir. One contrasting, but not majority
view, is that of Nisaburi, who says that “those who have incurred
Allah’s wrath are the people of negligence, and those who have gone
astray are the people of immoderation.”

Saudi Wahhabis drew criticism a few years back for adding “such as
the Jews” and “such as the Christians” into parenthetical glosses on
this passage in Qur’ans printed in Saudi Arabia. Some Western
commentators imagined that the Saudis originated this interpretation,
and indeed the whole idea of Qur’anic hostility toward Jews and
Christians. They found it inconceivable that Muslims all over the world
would learn as a matter of course that the central prayer of their faith
anathematizes Jews and Christians.

But unfortunately, this interpretation is venerable and mainstream in
Islamic theology. The printing of the interpretation in parenthetical
glosses into a translation would be unlikely to affect Muslim attitudes,
since the Arabic text is always and everywhere normative in any case,
and since so many mainstream commentaries contain the idea that the Jews
and Christians are being criticized here. Seventeen times a day, by the
pious.

And in the Arizona State Senate, with the willing participation of
the foolish kuffar who had no idea that they were asking God to be led
away from the Judeo-Christian foundations upon which American society
was based. However, given the fact that they invited an official of
Hamas-linked CAIR to address them in the first place, they are not
likely to be too concerned about that.

Comments

Hamas-CAIR Gave the Islamic Prayer Cursing Christians and Jews Before the Arizona State Senate

The stupidity (or complicity) behind such a move is profound. The immediate question is who was behind the invitation to a Hamas group named an un-indicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorist-funding trial in our nation's history to proselytize to the Arizona State Senate? There. are. no. words.

A Call to Islam in the Arizona Senate Robert Spencer, February 14, 2013, Daily Mailer,FrontPage

Last
week, a representative of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR) gave a prayer before the Arizona State Senate.

No news media picked it up. No one reported on it. It was a
commonplace thing. CAIR, after all, is a “civil rights” organization;
why should anyone be concerned if a CAIR leader prays in a U.S.
government body? CAIR has been linked by the Justice Department to the
Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, but no one seems to mind. What could go
wrong?

And so this is the situation: in America today, representatives of a
group linked to an international organization dedicated to “eliminating
and destroying Western civilization from within” (the Muslim
Brotherhood’s stated goal in the U.S., according to a captured internal
document) are consulted daily by law enforcement officials and the
mainstream media, and one is invited into the august chambers of
government to give his blessings on the proceedings. While there, he
leads the lawmakers in a prayer that obliquely condemns their own
religious traditions.

Meanwhile, those who are trying to defend the nation against their
subversive influence, are demonized, defamed, marginalized and shunned.
Again, what could go wrong?

The website of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Arizona
chapter announced proudly that “on Thursday, February 7th, 2013 – the
Arizona State Senate’s prayer invocation was led by Anas Hlayhel – the
Chairman of the Arizona Chapter of the Council on American Islamic
Relations (CAIR-AZ.)

Hlayhel, who also serves as the part time imam of the Islamic Center
of the Northeast Valley led the lawmakers and all those in attendance
through the reading of al-Fatiha (the opening chapter of the Holy Quran)
in addition to an additional prayer thereafter.”

He “led the lawmakers and all those in attendance through the reading
of al-Fatiha.” So what did they read? The Fatiha, the first sura of the
Qur’an, contains this: “Guide us in the straight path, the path of
those whom Thou hast blessed, not of those against whom Thou art
wrathful, nor of those who are astray.” (1:6-7)

It sounds straightforward enough: guide us to the truth, guide us
onto the path to God, don’t let us get on the wrong paths, that lead us
away from You. A simple expression of piety, that any religious person
could endorse, no? No. The traditional Islamic understanding of this is
that the “straight path” is Islam — cf. Islamic apologist John
Esposito’s book Islam: The Straight Path. It is also
traditionally understood in Islamic explanations of this passage that
the path of those who have earned Allah’s anger are the Jews, and those
who have gone astray are the Christians.

The classic Qur’anic commentator Ibn Kathir explains that “the two
paths He described here are both misguided,” and that those “two paths
are the paths of the Christians and Jews, a fact that the believer
should beware of so that he avoids them. The path of the believers is
knowledge of the truth and abiding by it. In comparison, the Jews
abandoned practicing the religion, while the Christians lost the true
knowledge. This is why ‘anger’ descended upon the Jews, while being
described as ‘led astray’ is more appropriate of the Christians.”

Ibn Kathir’s understanding of this passage is not a lone “extremist”
interpretation. In fact, most Muslim commentators believe that the Jews
are those who have earned Allah’s wrath and the Christians are those who
have gone astray. This is the view of Tabari, Zamakhshari, the Tafsir al-Jalalayn, the Tanwir al-Miqbas min Tafsir Ibn Abbas,
and Ibn Arabi, as well as Ibn Kathir. One contrasting, but not majority
view, is that of Nisaburi, who says that “those who have incurred
Allah’s wrath are the people of negligence, and those who have gone
astray are the people of immoderation.”

Saudi Wahhabis drew criticism a few years back for adding “such as
the Jews” and “such as the Christians” into parenthetical glosses on
this passage in Qur’ans printed in Saudi Arabia. Some Western
commentators imagined that the Saudis originated this interpretation,
and indeed the whole idea of Qur’anic hostility toward Jews and
Christians. They found it inconceivable that Muslims all over the world
would learn as a matter of course that the central prayer of their faith
anathematizes Jews and Christians.

But unfortunately, this interpretation is venerable and mainstream in
Islamic theology. The printing of the interpretation in parenthetical
glosses into a translation would be unlikely to affect Muslim attitudes,
since the Arabic text is always and everywhere normative in any case,
and since so many mainstream commentaries contain the idea that the Jews
and Christians are being criticized here. Seventeen times a day, by the
pious.

And in the Arizona State Senate, with the willing participation of
the foolish kuffar who had no idea that they were asking God to be led
away from the Judeo-Christian foundations upon which American society
was based. However, given the fact that they invited an official of
Hamas-linked CAIR to address them in the first place, they are not
likely to be too concerned about that.